The Pegasus Awards

Pegasus Nominations

Blake Hodgetts has been a willful filker since falling in with Los Angeles
Filkers Anonymous towards the end of 2000. Now living in Eugene, Oregon,
he has written nearly forty songs since then and has found audiences at
numerous conventions. His appearances have been mostly along the West
Coast, although he has made it out to GAFilk and was honored to be the
InterFilk guest
at OVFF in 2003. He's an unusually well-credentialled filker, holding
a Master's degree in music composition from the University of Oregon.
When not engineering computer software for a living or making music, Blake
enjoys flummoxing people with languages, dabbling in computer graphics,
wasting time on LiveJournal
(mrlogic), and occasionally acting in musical theatre productions.

Blake's songs
are eclectic, painstakingly crafted, and highly individual; the majority
include original music as well as lyrics. With serious and humorous songs
on many topics, he considers nothing off-limits. His arrangements often
make the most of his skills at the keyboard, and unusual modulations and
chord progressions lend many of his songs a unique sound. Blake began
learning the guitar this year and hopes to use this facility to further
broaden his palette, as well as to make it easier to room-hop during open
filking.

In 2003 Blake released his first album, Blindsight, containing
15 songs in a wide range of styles and moods. (Samples from Blindsight
can be heard at his web page for the album: http://www.efn.org/~bch/blindsight.html;
longer samples are also available at his page at cdbaby.com)
Plans for a second album are in the early stages. Blake has also appeared
as a guest artist on Echo's Children's fourth album, From the Hazel
Tree, and on Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff's parody album, Aliens Ate
My Homework. 2004 also marked Blake's first airplay on the Dr. Demento
show, with his twisted love song "Hot Point, Warm Heart".

Blake has become somewhat notorious as the sponsor and facilitator of
the popular youthful filk duo Ash Productions, comprising his two daughters
Angelica and Athrylis Sather Hodgetts, and serves as their accompanist
in concert.

(Evangelista's Note: In March, 2005, Blake was arrested for
material found on his computer hard drive. He was held, pending trial,
through the summer. When he was Nominated, his trial had not yet taken
place. In the U.S., a man is innocent until proven guilty at his trial.

In early September, 2005 (after the Final Ballot had been
released), Blake had his trial. He admitted guilt, and has been sentenced
to 10 years in prison.

The Pegasus is a filk music award. Blake is a filker, and
is being recognized for his musical accomplishments. His personal actions,
accepting responsibility for them, and paying his debt to society are
outside of the scope of the Pegasus.

We recognize that these facts may affect your voting decision.
If you voted for Blake before 9/15/05 and wish to re-cast your ballot,
please contact us so that it may
be arranged.)

(Note: this song is NOT a Pegasus nominated song-
it is a representative work for Best Performer and/or Best Writer/Composer
categories):

Boundless?

Soft in the corridors, light as a cat,
I prowl in the night.
Seeking the long-hidden portal to gaze at the sight:
Cold as a liquid crystal they burn
As round their circle they turn,
Full of their mysteries no-one can learn,
Indifferent pinpoints of light.

I am in school and it's here with my class
My future is made:
Physics, electromechanics, the tools of my trade.
We have no doubts of our destiny:
A Core Technician I'll be,
To work for the Ship and for what she grants me...
But some tenets must be obeyed.

[Chorus]

Uncounted times I have heard it explained:
The Ship is our place.
Here we were born, here we die, it's the home of our race.
Who made the Ship? That's not ours to know,
So many ages ago,
Thus I've been taught, I suppose that it's so...
But sometimes there's doubt in a face.

[Chorus]

I am a seeker by nature, it seems...
I yearn to explore.
I have found secrets that challenge my soul to ignore.
Pinpoints of light--the least of my fears.
This puzzle far stranger appears:
A plate bearing numbers and labeled as "years"
Reads one hundred seventy-four.

[Chorus]

Why this discovery shook my foundations,
I must here relate:
When I first found it its import did not seem so great.
Imagine my thoughts the day I arrived,
Having been one year longer alive,
To find the last digit was no longer "five"...
What is our implacable fate?

[Chorus]

Here is my struggle: how can I continue
To bear this alone?
There must be reason and meaning in what I've been shown.
Though I have gone to places taboo,
Soon I must guide others there too.
We may never learn what we're counting down to,
But some truths have got to be known.